Design and synthesis of novel photoaffinity reagents for labeling VEGF receptor tyrosine kinases

Novel biotin-tagged photoaffinity probes based on a trifunctional tertiary amine scaffold were synthesized and evaluated as vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) inhibitors. Probes 3a-c inhibit VEGF induced proliferation in HUVE cells, with IC₅₀ values of 29.7, 33.3, and 37.7 μM, respectively. Moreover, we identified the interaction of 3b with VEGFR-2 in photoaffinity labeling experiment using HUVE cells.